Boardwalk Villas or Beach Club Villas

[Bugaroni]

I am very close to trying to purchase a re-sale for the DVC. I have narrowed my search down to Beach Club or Boardwalk. I have a few questions to ask the knowledgable community.

1. If you have Beach club as your home resort, can you reserve a specific room, i.e. can I always get a 2bdrm villa with excellent EPCOT view? Or do you get assigned a room when you get there, so I could end up with a parking lot view.

2. I know Boardwalk has the assigned views so I can be sure I get a specific view.

3. If I stay at Boardwalk, can I go to the Beach Club pool? We really like the pool and this is really driving my desire to have this be my home resort.

Thanks in advance and insight would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

 

[disneynutz]

Let me ask you a question. Did you know that BCV are behind the BC?

You really can't see much of Epcot from the BCV except maybe the tops of the tallest structures.

 

[itsreally4mommy]

You can't pool hop to SAB, that is only for YC and BC.

 

[dis-happy]

We bought both...BCV for the pool and BWV for the standard points rooms (plus we love the resort in general). If you are getting a smaller contract through resale consider BWV---with the standard view points option you can make your points go a lot further.

 

[doconeill]

BCV doesn't have any sort of booking categories...they are all the same class. There isn't a lot to see...there is a small percentage of rooms (maybe 30%) that might be able to see some of the fireworks from Illuminations, and the tops of a few of the buildings and Spaceship Earth. Very few rooms have what I would call a direct view of the parking lot (the end of one wing is towards the lot).

And unfortunately Stormalong Bay is one of the two pools you CANNOT pool hop to (the other being at AKL). You have to be staying at YC/BC/BCV.

 

[bradisgoofy]

I am very close to trying to purchase a re-sale for the DVC. I have narrowed my search down to Beach Club or Boardwalk. I have a few questions to ask the knowledgeable community.

1. If you have Beach club as your home resort, can you reserve a specific room, i.e. can I always get a 2bdrm villa with excellent EPCOT view? Or do you get assigned a room when you get there, so I could end up with a parking lot view. See above as we haven't stayed there, yet.

2. I know Boardwalk has the assigned views so I can be sure I get a specific view. That is correct. We always get a Boardwalk view, BUT, it is the most points.

3. If I stay at Boardwalk, can I go to the Beach Club pool? If you mean Stormalong Bay, nope. We really like the pool and this is really driving my desire to have this be my home resort. I don't blame you, do it! You can always stay at BWV every once in a while, just at the 7 month window.

Thanks in advance and insight would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

 

[bobbiwoz]

Actually you are not allowed to pool hop to any of the Beach Club pools if you are not staying there. I don't think there are any rooms at the BCV that actually face the parking lot, but I could be wrong. I think the worst view rooms face the road, but even then there are woods/trees to look at if you want to focus your attention on something other than the road. If you truly are disatisfied, you can pay a room change fee to change your room. By being there to explain exactly what you want, you may be luckier, but also, there may not be an empty room of the type you desire.

Bobbi

PS. We own at both BCV and BWV with most of our points at BWV because to me the fewer point cost for BWV standard view trumps even SAB!

 

[Bugaroni]

Based on some of your replies I am thinking about buying points at two resorts! Thanks for making me think this through.

Peter

 

[DVC Mike]

Based on some of your replies I am thinking about buying points at two resorts!

That's what we ended up doing, Peter.

 

[DeeCee735]

Please don't flame me, this is not meant as an offensive comment at all.
After reading the above posts, I can't help but wonder (and ask) what is the appeal of BCV? How much closer is it to Epcot and is that what really makes it a decision making point?

 

[karmakimmie]

I think the OP specifically mentioned wanting to be able to use SAB, so that would be a factor since you can't pool-hop to it.

 

[doconeill]

Please don't flame me, this is not meant as an offensive comment at all.
After reading the above posts, I can't help but wonder (and ask) what is the appeal of BCV? How much closer is it to Epcot and is that what really makes it a decision making point?

It is closer to a park than any other resort (well, portions of BC proper is closer), and is a 5-10 minute walk (depending on how fast you are) to the World Showcase. After a day at other parks, you can slip over there for some wine in France, ale in the U.K., sushi in Japan, etc. and stumble back to your room in short order.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Originally Posted by DeeCee735
Please don't flame me, this is not meant as an offensive comment at all.
After reading the above posts, I can't help but wonder (and ask) what is the appeal of BCV? How much closer is it to Epcot and is that what really makes it a decision making point?

I've stayed at both the BC (not the BCV) and the Boardwalk. I did feel the walk to Epcot was quicker from the BC area. Also, SAB is a HUGE draw with many for owning at BCV. And lastly, BCV is alot smaller of a resort, so securing a reservation here if it's not your home resort can be difficult if not impossible----especially during Food and Wine/early Dec and other holidays. It's much easier to get a room at BWV last minute (under 60 days), than it would be for BCV. So I think BCV have these things going for it. Also, BC has Cape May Cafe which has the only character meal in the boardwalk area---except for the Swan hotel. I know we used to love it when OKW had a character breakfast. It was so fun to stay at OKW and just walk over to Olivia's for the Pooh character breakfast. When they took it away, we all found it pretty disappointing.

 

[MAKHayes-DisneyDiva]

Reading this thread makes me want to be a DVC member so bad!!

 

[mickeyc]

I own at both the BCV and BWV and enjoy both resorts. Both these resorts book quickly and I am finding it increasing difficult to book last minute trips at my home resort. I am starting to appreciate the advice offered on the boards. Buy where you want to stay the most.

Enjoy!

 

[TinaLampus]

I really want to own at an Epcot DVC Resort sometime. My husband and I are in the middle of purchasing at AKV (Which I reallt like too!) but I LOVE EPCOT! and I can't wait to eventually own there!

 

[Jaaron2]

We own at BCV and have stayed at the BWV as well. We absolutely love BCV for many reasons:
1) Theme
2) Pools (SAB rocks)
3) Location
4) Food (great restaurants- and you also get the Yachtsmans Steakhouse!) all of which you can reach from inside the resort- unlike the Boardwalk).
5) Smaller resort

We are a beach family so this resort has special appeal to us. The one thing I really didnt like aboutthe BWV (which is a nice resort) is that you have to go outside to get to anything. We stayed there when it was raining and just to get drinks or a snack we had to go out into the rain onto the boardwalk to get to the store

We also figured it was easier to enjoy what BWV had to offer from the Beach Club than it was the other way around.

 

[crisi]

I am very close to trying to purchase a re-sale for the DVC. I have narrowed my search down to Beach Club or Boardwalk. I have a few questions to ask the knowledgable community.

1. If you have Beach club as your home resort, can you reserve a specific room, i.e. can I always get a 2bdrm villa with excellent EPCOT view? Or do you get assigned a room when you get there, so I could end up with a parking lot view.

2. I know Boardwalk has the assigned views so I can be sure I get a specific view.

3. If I stay at Boardwalk, can I go to the Beach Club pool? We really like the pool and this is really driving my desire to have this be my home resort.

Thanks in advance and insight would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

Boardwalk does have assigned views - but that doesn't always mean you can have an EXCELLENT view of Epcot. If you are call early enough to reserve the Boardwalk View, you could end up on the first or second floor (there are only a few rooms on the first floor) or overlooking the Village Green (the first set of rooms - maybe the first two - are Boardwalk View) which are somewhat less desirable views that top floor of the "Crest of the Wave" building. Also, reserving a Boardwalk view room is by no means certain - its pretty darn certain if you can call eleven months out - but even then at certain times of the year, they book up quickly.

You have better luck trading into any old room at BWV than BCV at seven months, but better luck trading into BCVs than BWV Boardwalk View or Standard View at seven months (with the exception of the 2Queen bed dedicateds at BCVs - those are in high demand and low supply).

 

[LIFERBABE]

We own both and prefer BCV for several reasons posted here.

I like the parking situation, food and restaurants at BCV better too. Also, BC/YC has pool attendants to bring you food and drinks (tip) which I enjoy on my Adult trips. The views I dont like so we spend more time on the resort side or if relaxing balcony view is important to us, we stay somewhere else like SSR.

We have BWV for the standard view points and the rooms are larger.

 

[ExecChef]

It is closer to a park than any other resort (well, portions of BC proper is closer), and is a 5-10 minute walk (depending on how fast you are) to the World Showcase. After a day at other parks, you can slip over there for some wine in France, ale in the U.K., sushi in Japan, etc. and stumble back to your room in short order.

I AGREE IT IS A SHORTER WALK, WE STILL CHOOSE BWV IT THE ATMOSPHERE THAT WE LIKE YOU CAN HANG OUT ON THE BOARDWALK OR JUST GO NTO BED IT THE OPTION I GUESS. WE USUALLY HANG OUT AT THE ESPN CLUB OR DUELING PIANOS.